George Bailey wearing his cap sideways. A run out not given because nobody appealed. Steve Smith jumping into a drinks esky. None of these made the cut for the ratings for this third game between Pakistan and Australia. Here’s the stuff that did.
Phil Hughes
Grade: A
The big news at the toss was that the Australian team had downgraded their Mitch and switched out Nathan Lyon for Phil Hughes. Presumably, Phil had been working hard on his ‘Jeff’ ball in the nets and had forced his way into the side on that basis.
The selection of Hughes enabled yet another layer of Australia’s favourite ongoing mystery to unfold: Namely, is Hughes a champion in the making who just needs an extended run in the team to blossom into greatness? Or is he a colossus of domestic cricket who is invariably found out when he steps up to international level?
Or is he just Australia’s top-ranked imaginary friend? A Mr Snuphilupahughes, if you like.
Like the writers of Lost, the selectors just keep dripping this puzzle out in bits and pieces, teasing us with ever-unfolding variations on the underlying mystery. And they did so again here, batting him at six so that Hughes acolytes could shrug off his score of 5 as a result of him being unfairly batted out of position. While Hughes detractors could point to him making, like, a score of 5.
Either way, his dismissal left the nation wanting more.
'devastated' is now trending in Australia http://t.co/giFpgT62Zv
— Trends Australia (@TrendsAustralia) October 12, 2014
Well played, selectors. Well played.
Shahid Afridi
Grade: B+
Of course, before Phil Hughes could come in and bat at six (an opportunity cruelly denied to Nathan Lyon in earlier games I might add), several other batsmen had to fall. And doing his fair share of the felling was new Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi, who snared the wickets of both Warner and Maxwell as Australia slumped to 5/157 in the 36th over.
Initially, I wasn’t a big fan of the decision for Misbah to ‘rest’ and Afridi to replace him. While I love a Pakistan captaincy crisis as much as the next writer of nonsense cricket articles, it’s still four months until the World Cup and it felt like Pakistan were peaking too early.
But I was swayed from the moment Afridi revealed at the toss that he had no idea who was still in his team and who had been replaced, or by whom. This may seem like classic Pakistan. But read on…
Batman
Grade: C
The new TV show Gotham also premiered last night. Dean Jones apparently saw this as an excellent opportunity to make his pitch to be part of the Nine commentary team later this summer. Because from the moment the Aussies came out to bat, Jones spent a good fifteen to twenty minutes talking about how Aaron Finch’s Test cricket ambitions were being thwarted by the geometry of his bat plane.
And somewhere back in Australia, Michael Slater’s eyes jolted open and he responded Pavlovianly with ‘And speaking of Batplanes, the smash new Nine hit Gotham returns this Sunday straight after The Block. Have you been watching Gotham, Chappelli?’
Deano also went on to talk about David Warner’s hips and the grazing techniques of horses in a tour de force of commentary gibberish. Knocking on the door.
Pakistan collapsing
Grade: B-
All in all, the Australian batting innings was a clinical display of Boring Middle Overs cricket, with the Aussies meandering their way to 9/231 off their 50 overs, including a compelling 2/9 stint from the five overs of their mandatory Power Play.
It was professional stuff, giving their bowlers a vital opportunity to practise defending a rubbish total.
But Pakistan had their own skill set to work on. Oh sure, they’d clinically collapsed in both of the earlier games, but even in a dead rubber, there’s no need to let one’s standards slip. And Pakistan had no intention of doing so. From 3/154 in the 33rd over, requiring only 78 to win, they somehow managed to topple to 8/208 in the 47th. This may also seem like classic Pakistan. But, seriously, read on…
Steve Smith’s slip catch
Grade: B+
Steve Smith took slipping to a whole new level, controversially dashing from first slip to leg slip to catch a Fawad Alam sweep. There was some talk that this was unfair movement from Smith prior to the ball reaching the batsman, but the umpires ruled that it was actually less movement than we typically see from Smith during a typical delivery and allowed it.
The final over
Grade: A+
I don’t even have a joke for this one. With Pakistan needing only two runs to win, Glenn Maxwell bowled a double wicket maiden to win the game for Australia.
That’s pretty good by any standards.
Also, classic Pakistan.
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